Business On The Go!Busy attorney Michael J Posner reveals a hardware and software arsenal that allows him to do business anywhere, anytime.BY MICHAEL J POSNER Unlike engineers and physicians, who are surrounded by and depend on technology, executives and business professionals tend to shun technology and prefer time-honored methods for their work. Computers, CD-ROMs and the Internet were adopted slowly, and handheld usage has, until recently, suffered the same fate amongst lawyers. However, with the growing power of the various Windows CE devices (and a bow of acknowledgement to the Palm Pilot), business professionals are beginning to adopt both handhelds and Palm-size PCs for their business arsenals. This adoption rate will remain low unless more powerful and useful tools are developed that can benefit their bottom line. For example, a promising time and billing program (a key need of time-based professionals such as lawyers and architects) I reviewed several months ago has been halted in development and little comparable software exists. Sometimes it is necessary to take matters into one's own hands. Utilizing a program like Visual CE, a database tool for non-programmers, a basic time and billing database can be created to partially solve this problem. Another example is the lack of support for interfacing desktop programs and Windows CE devices. A portable reference library One advantage of both the handheld and Palm-size Windows CE devices is the large size of text files that can be carried, opened and edited by Pocket Word, or Notetaker. As a lawyer, I can carry relevant chapters of Florida law on my Cassiopeia E-105 as a reference tool and add notes to them as I work (even in court!). For larger works (in excess of 500K) I use the program Mobibook (www.mobibook.com), which is one of the many e-book readers for Windows CE devices. Many company manuals and data are available in text format that can be easily transferred to your Windows CE device and previewed on screen. Mobibook offers in-text bookmarking and a fast scrolling (see Screen 1).
Screen 1: For viewing larger works (in excess of 500K) I use the program Mobibook, an e-book reader that offers in-text bookmarking and fast scrolling. You can also create a mobile channel of your favorite Web site using the Mobile Channel Wizard available from Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/windowsce/products/download/list.asp. After downloading the wizard and installing the program, simply point your browser to a Web site and run the wizard to create the mobile channel. Then re-sync your device and the channel will be available for offline browsing. Adding a larger keyboard Getting large quantities of data into a P/PC or H/PC can be problematic, but there are several solutions available. Hewlett- Packard now offers an external keyboard (see Screen 2) that works with both the HP 300 and 600 series Handheld PCs as well as the Jornada 420/430 Palm-size PCs.
Screen 2: The HP External Keyboard connects to any of HP's 300 or 600 series Handheld PCs as well as the Jornada 420/430se Palm-size PCs, letting you enter data easily from a 90% fullsize keyboard. The HP External Keyboard (F1275A) is small in size, with six rows of 12 or 13 keys. The top row is slightly smaller, and contains the Esc and function keys. The remaining rows have the standard QWERTY keys. There is no Caps Lock key (the function is activated by pressing Fn/Shift). The HP External Keyboard has a large Enter key and right Shift key. The arrow keys are in the lower right, smaller but in the proper north south, east west configuration. I have used the keyboard at the pool with my HP 360 Handheld PC and I can usually hit 30 to 40 words per minute with good accuracy. With the HP 420/430 Palm-size PCs, you must use the docking cradle to connect to the external keyboard. This provides a good screen viewing angle for editing purposes. The Casio E-100/105 Palm-size PCs also have a similar external keyboard. Enhancing productivity If a keyboard will limit your mobility, there are other input options that enhance productivity. For Palm-size PC users, Jot Pro (www.cic.com/products/index.html) is a worthwhile upgrade that allows a user to input data anywhere on the screen (see Screen 3) instead of in boxes like the original Jot.
Screen 3: Jot is built into all Palm-size PCs and adds single-character handwriting recognition. The Jot Pro upgrade lets you write your characters anywhere on the screen instead of in a small box at the bottom of the screen. Jot Pro also allows the creation of sophisticated macros. For example, you could easily use "mjp" in place of "Michael J Posner." The Macro Editor is simple to use and provides for a one-time definition of phrases of up to 1,024 characters in length. "One-time" means that you can't edit it after it's created, but you can replace it. To use a macro, you simply enter the extended character gesture before writing out the macro. It works well and is reasonably fast in replacing your macro word. Wireless communications and e-mail are the future of ultra-portable devices. At present, however, high cost, slow speed and limited availability make these a poor choice for many users. A practical alternative is bFax Pro (see Screen 4) from bSQUARE, (www.bsquare.com) which lets you send and receive faxes using an inexpensive PC Card modem. If you don't need high-speed modem access (and you don't for faxes and e-mail), you can easily pick up a used 14.4 or 33.6 Kbps fax/modem card for less than $50. bFax Pro is very flexible, allows batch sending and creates cover pages. Team bFax Pro with one of the many Internet fax services and you can send a fax to anyone with access to your Internet fax page. (bSQUARE will soon release bFax Pro 5.0, which will include Internet faxing, the ability to hand write on documents, and more.)
Screen 4: bFax Pro adds fax send/receive capability to H/PCs and P/PCs, a number of which come with this program built into ROM.
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